Earth on a chain hung outside light.

I want to hang a light from a tree in my garden. I've got a spur to a couple of sockets in the shed and a few existing outside lights. The spur is protected by an RCD.

I've bought a 'lantern' style light intended for outdoor use -

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what's not apparent from that picture is that it hangs from a 'ceiling rose' that i don't want to use. The only earth connection in the fitting is in that rose - the rest of the light would be connected to earth via the chain - and the wire coming from lamp (that can be seen in that pic) only has two conducters.

How do i earth this? replacing the two conductor cable is not trivial as the unit is sealed. My thought was to solder an earth to a piece of the chain (which is going to be slung around a tree branch). Any other suggestions? Do i need an earth if it's on an RCD?

Reply to
b33k34
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If the luminaire only has a two-wire flex then it should be double insulated and not require an earth. The earth in the ceiling rose is used for terminating the circuit wiring. In fact, it would *have* to be double insulated, as there's no way that the chain would be a sufficient earth for the luminaire.

Does it have a "square-in-square" double insulated symbol on it or in the instructions?

Owain

Reply to
Owain

The lampholder and lantern part are almost certainly double insulated and don't need earthing. The chain would have been an inadequate earth connection otherwise.

An RCD does not remove the need for an earth, but I doubt it needs one anyway, RCD or not.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

That's kind of what i suspected - I didn't think the chain would really be sufficient. Great - that makes life easy.

Reply to
b33k34

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